QA Hospital-filmed documentary Nurses on The Ward returns to UKTV

They offer unbridled access to life at the sharp end of the NHS – the highs and lows of every day life as they get on with the important business of sorting our health out and saving lives.

And as we mark the 75th anniversary of the NHS, UKTV’s Nurses on The Ward returns to our screens. The series, which follows the exploits of nurses at Queen Alexandra Hospital here in Portsmouth aired its first 10-episode season from last April.

Now it returns for a second series with remarkable life stories, heart-warming camaraderie, and the humour of life in the hospital, as we follow the ever-demanding challenges todays’ nurses face. The series follows nurses in palliative care, A&E, ICU, orthopaedics, military and midwifery.

​Advanced Critical Care Practitioner (ACCP) Caroline McCrea featured in the first series and is back for more. In the opening episode we see her and the team deal with Judith, a woman in her 70s, who has been involved in a car accident which has left her seriously injured.

Speaking with Caroline about her career path to QA, there seems little doubt that she would end up in medicine. And not just Caroline – her twin sister is a consultant anaesthetist over at Southampton General Hospital.

‘I don't remember wanting to do anything else other than work in a hospital,’ says the 37-year-old. ‘My dad is a doctor, my mum was a cardiac technician so we both grew up learning from a very young age about different medical terms.

‘Initially I wanted to be a doctor, but unfortunately didn't meet the triple-A A-levels. I think a lot of people would think: “Oh well, she's wanting to be a doctor”, but I truly fell in love with nursing and it's been great to have the ACCP role come up eight years after I qualified. It's just meant that I can progress within my nursing career and show people that nurses can do a lot.’

As an ACCP, Caroline is responsible for intubation and extubating, prescribing medication, putting in central lines, vascular catheters, PICC lines, drains, reading x-rays and obs. She works closely with the ward nurses and is part of a tight team in the Critical Care Unit (CCU). She can also be sent anywhere in the hospital to intubate a patient, as part of the cardiac team, and is one of four clinicians at any one time who can hold the cardiac arrest bleep.

A relatively new role, Caroline was part of the first cohort of six to be taken on as an ACCP at QA.

Looking back on when the TV production company first came to QA, she says: ’I had no idea that this series was even being done until I had a call from one of our communications team asking if I would meet with one of the researchers for the programme.

‘I must admit I was a bit confused, because we’re (the ACCPs) on the medical rota, we're not even in the nursing numbers in intensive care - we're in the doctors' numbers, but then when I met with them and went through it all, I realised it's such a nice opportunity to be able to showcase what nurses can do – not just in the ACCP role, but in A&E, in ITU – the NHS wouldn't be what it is without the nurses.’

The new series was filmed from October to December last year, and this time around the staff had a much better idea of what it would be like having a camera crew trailing around behind them.

‘Last time I had no idea what it would be like, this time around I was a bit more aware of what they would be like. They're very good at knowing when to take a step back, and knowing when they can't interrupt you. Sometimes you have to pretend that they're not there because you're in situations where you can't afford to be distracted. No disrespect to them, but a lot of the time I pretend that they're not there!’

A job like nursing often requires people to work under testing conditions – and things don’t always work out. But Caroline thinks it’s important for the documentary to show that side as well.

‘I don't think a documentary like this should just show the good, because it's not always good, it's not always happy. It's good for the public to see that we are emotional. We are invested, and emotionally invested in our patients, and the reason we go into roles like this I because we care – it's important for the public to see that.’

And when they do lose a patient, how do they cope with that?

‘You cope by having your team around you. Maybe offloading to the SHOs, the registrars who are with you, your nursing colleagues, the consultants. I think anywhere in the NHS there are times when it is awful, and we do see and experiences some awful things. But it's your work family around you who pick you up and pull you through.’

With the first series catching the tail-end of the pandemic, Caroline says that at least they don't have that to contend with now.

‘It was nice that this series was more ‘normal.’ The first series was when Covid was still very much around, this series not so much. It was an extremely difficult time for a lot of people.’

​It is a reality of nursing that of course they can’t keep in touch with former patients or find out how they’re getting on after leaving their care. But one positive aspect of filming the show is that its producers do keep in touch with former patients for updates. For instance, we find out the end of the episode that Judith – who was transferred to Southampton where she had a nine hour operation on her broken pelvis – is now in recovery.

‘It has been nice to get the updates because of doing this. It would be great to be able to know what happens to all of our patients, but it's just impossible to be able to do so!’

The first episode airs at 8pm on Thursday, July 13 on Channel W, and is also available via UKTV online.

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